A Democratic Socialist Blog

Sociological Awareness: Results of Austerity

America’s future will be determined by the home and the school. The child becomes largely what he is taught; hence we must watch what we teach, and how we live.

Jane Addams

Socialisms goal is to rectify the ills of society. These ills are caused by The Government We wonder why people behave the way they do. It is because of a system of inequality and sociological damage.

Researchers have documented a connection between low socioeconomic status (low SES, or those who are poor) and the likelihood of also being diagnosed with a mental illness or having attempted suicide.

The researchers also found that a decrease in a person’s income level is also associated with a higher risk for anxiety and mood disorders, as well as a higher rate of substance use.

Previous research into the relationship between these factors has not resulted in a clear answer, according to the researchers. “Some studies have found that lower income is associated with mental illness, while other studies have not found this relationship,” noted author Jitender Sareen, M.D., of the University of Manitoba.

To study the relationship between income, suicide attempts and mental disorders, the researchers analyzed data from the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions, the largest longitudinal, population-based mental health survey ever conducted.

A total of 34,653 U.S. adults, age 20 years and older, were interviewed twice, three years apart.
Most important, the findings suggest that income below $20,000 per year is associated with substantial psychopathologic characteristics and that there is a need for targeted interventions to treat and prevent mental illness in this low-income sector of the population,”

Spending cuts in Greece caused a rise in male suicides, according to research that attempts to highlight the health costs of austerity. Echoing official statistics in the UK showing suicide rates are still higher than before the crisis, researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found a correlation between spending cuts and suicides in Greece.

According to the research, every 1% fall in government spending in Greece led to a 0.43% rise in suicides among men – after controlling for other characteristics that might lead to suicide, 551 men killed themselves “solely because of fiscal austerity” between 2009 and 2010, said the paper’s co-author Nikolaos Antonakakis.

There can exist a jobs creation in many ways. Women become damaged because the sociological institutions are destructive, unwed mothers, abused spouses, the war on abortion have lead many women to desperation.

The class war effects men because they go to prison, are rendered homeless, and are effected in many ways mentally and emotionally. Welfare systems snare hope into even more hopeless lives.

The class war means only the top wins, laws are adjusted or ignored to suit the powerful. Rent Control, Affordable Housing and Urban improvement become impossible because the oligarchy disposes of human beings. Institutions like public schools not upper class neighborhoods are not funded properly. Education for the poor an working class is substandard. Every government institution runs horrible because the government is about wealth.

Even on local levels the government fails because the owners of Main Street buy City Hall and nothing is done in behalf of the people. When a town falls apart it is the oligarchy who leaves and the rest to pick up the pieces, which becomes impossible.

The rich have a snobbish disdain for the poor—despite well-publicized acts of philanthropy—and the middle class. These lower classes are viewed as uncouth parasites, annoyances that have to be endured, at times placated and always controlled in the quest to amass more power and money. My hatred of authority, along with my loathing for the pretensions, heartlessness and sense of entitlement of the rich, comes from living among the privileged. It was a deeply unpleasant experience. But it exposed me to their insatiable selfishness and hedonism. I learned, as a boy, how well to do people behaved and the poor.
Jane Addams, a significant force in turn of the century Chicago where she and her ideas intersected with those of muscular Christianity, Dewey’s philosophy, as well as European theories on urban poor and how to mitigate their misery. what it is not is a bleeding heart screed but the story of a woman who had a keen political sense and who felt that the poor deserved to be treated as equals and not as charity cases. She knew about the cause and conditions and the essence of Democracy and the Social Etic.